Review: Tempest by Julie Cross

The year is 2009. Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.

That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future.

Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities.

But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time-traveler. Recruit… or kill him.

Piecing together the clues about his father, the Enemies of Time, and himself, Jackson must decide how far he’s willing to go to save Holly… and possibly the entire world.

I’m a huge fan of time travel books and most definitely seek them out. They’ve been becoming more popular in YA in the last year or so and I’ve been very excited about that and eager to read them all. So I was really excited to have the opportunity to review this book. Now I’ve read quite a few time travel YA books and I’ve read lots and lots of adult time travel books. This one feels like it falls in between the two, which is appropriate since it’s characters are college age. However, I feel the younger readers will feel over their head and there is more ‘adult’ behavior {language, sexual content, etc}.

I loved Jackson. I love male narrators and Jackson was no exception. He was brave, he stood up for what he believed was right, he had a strong and good conscious, and he was so sweet and lovable that I just wanted to hug him. He had a strong voice and character and I totally felt that connection, where I felt like I really knew him.

While we’re getting the story from Jackson’s point of view Holly is a very important character in the book and I loved her as well. Her personality popped and she was definitely someone I rooted for and really hoped Jackson would be able to be with again {it’s complicated, but they are separated for a bit in the beginning then back together, etc. But the time line makes it difficult to explain.}. I also really liked Adam. It was nice that Jackson had a friend to help him through it all. And while Adam almost seems a bit too convenient {science nerd to help Jackson with the time travel stuff} he really was a good friend and a fantastic character.

This book gets a bit confusing at times. I’m kind of use to not always ‘getting’ everything so it wasn’t a big issue, but I found myself wondering certain things and not understanding exactly why things did or didn’t work. It’s too hard to explain when you haven’t read the book yet, but time travel can be complicated when there are different kinds of time travel. I’m not sure that it affected my overall love of the book though.

This book is like a movie. Seriously, I can see it on the big screen already. I’m usually not a fan of books being made into movies {or I just don’t care} but this one is like it’s made for being a movie. Good thing it is going to be! And it’s one I’ll look forward to seeing!

Overall this was a fantastic read. It deals with a lot other then time travel like family {he lost his twin sister a few years earlier and his relationship with his father comes into play in the book}, love {of course!} and Jackson has to make lots of decisions that could affect the future of our world. I definitely recommend this book to more mature YA readers and adults who enjoy this type of read.

4.5/5 stars

Disclosure: I received this book for review purposes. All opinions expressed are my own and I was not paid or influenced in any way.

Comments

I have a copy of this and can’t wait to get to it because, like you, I love time travel books. I’m also really excited about having college-aged protagonists as their age and situation should give them more freedom.

I’m really excited to read this one! I’ve heard lots of good things about it and I really like the fact that the protagonists are college-aged, I think it’ll make for a very interesting read. Great review!

I agree time travel is confusing in books. I haven’t come across one that does it the same as another book. But as long as you can understand enough to understand the story that’s good enough for me!

Excellent review Candace! I wasn’t sure about this one. I read the first chapter and liked it but I didn’t know about the rest of it! I’m glad I’ll be reading it!! And already it’s being made into a movie?? Congrats to the author!

I liked this one because it was for a more mature teen audience. I thought the time travel got a little confusing at times which kept me from falling in love with it. Plus the ending almost had me throwing the book so I will have to see what I think about the series once I read the second book.

I’m glad you really liked this one though and I agree it reads like a movie.

I’ve heard that it does get pretty confusing at times. That’s my only… setback with reading this one. But I love the cover! And the fact that it’s from a male POV! I love hearing the guys’ thoughts, sometimes more than I do the girls’. And I adore time travel in books as well! So hopefully I won’t be disappointed.

I’ve always been a bit iffy with time travel stuff, but there are some great YA books in the field lately that I’m extremely excited to give this a go and will be happy when my copy arrives at my doorstep!

Great review, everything sounds interesting! But I especially can’t wait to see how he’s dealt with his sisters death – but mostly only because I have a twin brother myself and twin books always intrigue me haha (even if its only a minor part of the story).

I haven’t read many (if any?) time travel books, but I’ve had Tempest on my wishlist for months now. I cannot wait to read it and even though you found some aspects confusing, I have a feeling I’m going to love it. Like you, I adore male narrators and Jackson sounds like a character I’m going to connect with so fast.

I’ve seen a lot of rather… lukewarm reviews of this one, so I’m glad to hear you loved it! I haven’t read very many time travel books… I think the only one might be A Wrinkle in Time actually, now that I think about it a little more… Hmm…

Anyway, I doubt I’ll be picking this one up any time soon, but I’ll definitely think about your review if/when I run into a copy of this one!

Great review. I just reviewed this as well. I loved it as well. I know time travel can be a confusing thing sometimes, I have had my share, but it wasn’t so bad with this. I love all the characters as well especially Jackson, he was amazing. Great review again, so glad you enjoyed it as much as I did.